Adidas x Parley Ocean Shoe
Photo from Adidas-Group.com
Adidas, in partnership with Parley for the Oceans, have created the first shoe upper made entirely out of recycled ocean plastic and gillnets. Parley for the Oceans is and organisation in which creators and thinkers come together to raise awareness about the state of the oceans and collaborate on projects that can protect and conserve. Founding member Adidas supports Parley in its education and communication, as well as its comprehensive Ocean Plastic Programme, that intends to end plastic pollution within the oceans.
The shoes made a debut at a Parley Talks event entitled ‘Oceans.Climate. Life’, in June, hosted by the UN in New York, where founder of Parley Cyrill Gutsch talked about the partnership and showcased the prototype product. The materials are made entirely of yarns and filaments reclaimed and recycled from the ocean waste and illegal deep-sea gillnets, of which a partner organisation Sea Shepherd retrieved the nets after a 110-day expedition tracking an illegal poaching vessel off the coast of Africa.
‘At Parley for the Oceans, we want to establish the oceans as a fundamental part of the debate around climate change. Our objective is to boost public awareness and to inspire new collaborations that can contribute to protect and preserve the oceans. We are extremely proud that Adidas is joining us in this mission and is putting its creative force behind this partnership to show that it is possible to turn ocean plastic into something cool.’ Cyrill Gutsch, Founder of Parley for the Oceans.